The first term of Foundry makes…

At the start of the year, our team made a few significant changes to our previous Foundry creative sessions with the aim of presenting a more exciting challenge for our young people who attend.  Since April 2024, RicNic had delivered free after-school provision under our Foundry banner, with different classes for different age groups and a flexible programme covering a range of art forms.  After reviewing how quickly participation had grown and consulting with our regular attendees, we identified that we needed to build more structure AND more exciting challenges into our plans. 

This term, we launched our first ‘Foundry Makes’ projects across our sessions in Rushall and Bloxwich.  Foundry Makes offer 10-week creative projects each term, each with a project brief, end goal target and RicNic’s unique youth-led approach.  Participants can sign up for per term to take on each project.  This term our Friday project was focused on the design and publication of a food-themed activity book.  Funded by a grant from ‘Feeding Our Future’ project funding (via Walsall Council), the project saw 20 of our young people researching recipes, creating puzzles and games, designing characters and learning how to publish items using Canva. 

They have created a 24 page activity and recipe book which is now being distributed to local families through Walsall’s Family Hubs.  

Our Foundry Makes Makers have all loved the idea of seeing their own work in print, becoming authors, editors, artists and designers.  

We have definitely sparked an early interest in graphic design in some of our youngest participants!

The next Foundry Makes theme is ‘Carnival’ and this will stretch across our two groups, with participants exploring performance, costume making, set design and more!

Registration is now open to anyone aged 5-16 years.